Tempo Interaktif, Indonesia
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The government will carry out investigations into the distribution of batik textiles made in China. Trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu said her office will examine whether these batiks came to the country illegally or by dumping
“If they are here because of dumping, the government must know the exporters’ production costs and prove that these imports are inflicting losses on domestic producers,” she explained yesterday.
The Industry Department data cited Rp 290 billion worth of illegal batik-patterned textile is being distributed in the domestic market. The figure is 10 percent of the Rp 2,9 trillion earned from national batik production.
Mari called on batik business people to create better patterns than the Chinese batik so Indonesian batik products will not be replaced by imported ones. She also suggested that hand-made batiks, printed batik and textile batik products be put in different categories. “If we call textile batik as just textile, then anybody can produce it,” she said.
CORNILA DESYANA
